22-year-old Saga is building her own cottage: “This is an investment for future summers”

When 10-year-old Saga Santonen was asked what she wanted to inherit, her answer was clear: her grandparents’ small sauna cottage. When she turned 16, she first got half of the cottage, and this year her grandmother gave her the other half. Now, at 22, Saga is building a new cottage with help from her parents and boyfriend.

In the background is the old sauna cottage. You can follow the new cottage’s construction on Instagram and TikTok @villasadette.

The old cottage held plenty of memories but lacked space. At first, Saga considered expanding it, but ultimately decided to build a bigger cottage next to it and keep the original as a sauna cottage.

In this cottage project, Saga’s father took the lead on construction, while Saga focuses on planning. Her mother handles cooking at the worksite and takes on small garden projects. Saga’s boyfriend also helps.

“My dad has a lot of building expertise and interest. I’m more like a creative director.”

The original sauna cottage measures 36 square meters (388 sq ft), and the new one will be 47 square meters (506 sq ft). The new cottage won’t have its own bathing facilities, because they’re in the sauna cottage. Instead, the new place has a bigger kitchen and more living space.

Like her parents, Saga isn’t afraid of working outdoors or learning new skills.

“If there’s something I don’t know how to do, I’m sure I can learn it. I figure there’s bound to be a YouTube tutorial for everything!”

Saga, who studies at the Lahti Institute of Design, loves working with her hands and expressing herself. When the chance came for her to have her own cottage, it felt like the perfect larger project.

“I wanted to unleash my creativity on a bigger scale. Building a house was another possibility, but when I got this cottage, it felt right to invest in it.”

Saga thinks that if she had never started the cottage project, she might have spent more money on traveling. Still, she has no regrets: “It’s kind of an investment for future summers, because I’m building this place for myself.”

Everything in the still-unfinished cottage has been done by hand, apart from the groundwork. It’s an affordable solution, but it takes time.

“Naturally, progress isn’t the same as if I had hired a log-building company to assemble it in a week.”

Fortunately, the old cottage is on the property, so she can stay there. The sauna cottage allows the new log cottage to be built at a relaxed pace, fitting around work and studies.

It also matters to Saga that the final cottage reflects her own design.

“My personal touch shows in both the good and the not-so-good.”

A downside of building a cottage is that you have to learn everything yourself, and it doesn’t always turn out the way you imagined. For example, choosing materials can be difficult without prior experience.

“We’ve managed it all, but there have definitely been a few mistakes along the way.”

Some people unwind by doing nothing, while others relax by staying active. Saga belongs to the latter group. Even once the cottage is completed, there’s always more to do.

“I’ve always been the type of cottage-goer who can’t sit still all day. When it’s your own place, there’s always something you can work on. It’s never dull.”

Saga enjoys working outdoors and tackling various yard projects. “In winter, it’s difficult because there’s not much you can do besides shoveling snow. Then you simply have to relax.”

In addition to new construction projects, Saga also enjoys gardening and growing edible plants at the cottage. Her mother often plants flowers just to see what happens, while her grandma carefully looks after an 80 square meter (861 sq ft) potato patch. Saga learned about gardening from her grandmother and often helped harvest potatoes and carrots as a child.

“I’ve chosen a middle-ground approach. With flowers, I scatter seeds and hope for the best. For edible plants, I prefer raised bed gardening.”

As a child, Saga spent many summers in the old sauna cottage with her grandma. After she gained full ownership, she wanted to make it her own while still honoring its past.

The biggest change to the old cottage was renovating the sauna.

My grandmother’s influence is also visible in the new cottage.

“My grandma and I discussed the new cottage’s color. I didn’t want either cottage to be red, since there are already so many red cottages in this village.”

At first, Saga considered several color options, but her grandma wouldn’t accept blue or yellow, and black was entirely out of the question.

In the end, they chose pink. This raised some eyebrows on social media, where Saga has been posting about the cottage build.

“I’ve also gotten plenty of tips on painting techniques and tools.”

Saga shared a video on social media testing the paint on a single log to see how the color looked. In the comments, people wondered why she painted only one log pink. That sparked an idea for Saga:

“I plan to paint the cottage in multiple shades of pink. The finished place will be like a candy-colored dream.”